Honda Radio Problem

courtesy of Bob, The Auto Answer Man

Bob,
I just bought a '97 Honda Accord from an individual. The AM radio reception is HORRIBLE. It makes a loud buzzing noise sort of like when you drive by electric power lines....but it does it everywhere. There is only one station I can get without the buzzing. The FM stations don't have the buzzing and I can get a lot more stations, but they fade out sometimes when I turn (I think its a directional orientation thing).

The Honda dealer says its the same on his car. He said Honda got tired of the broken antenna problem so they put the antenna in the back window. Well, I can believe they think that poor excuse for radio reception is acceptable. Surely, they didn't come with such poor AM reception out of the factory did they?

Is there something I can do (that hopefully doesn't cost a fortune...but also isn't trashy looking) to add an external antenna or somehow supplement the window antenna? The only thing I can think of is maybe getting an antenna and installing it but drilling a hole in the body sounds scary....I want it to look nice, so it doesn't effect resale. One other thing I've thought of is maybe some kind of flex antenna that I can run around on the perimeter back dash (hopefully not too noticeable).

If what the Honda dealer says is true, surely people have come up with an improvement for this. Do you know what I can do?
Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff,
Your problem is that you are using non suppression type ignition wires and/or non resistor type spark plugs. Replace those things, and the noise should go away.
Good Luck!
Drive Safely!Bob, The Auto Answer Man

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